A recent project undertaken by several church volunteers promises to lower the cost of utilities while continuing to cool and heat our facilities appropriately.

In recent years St. John’s has taken full advantage of the NIPSCO Prescriptive Incentive program. We have paid for new LED lighting throughout the school building and new hi-bay lights for the gymnasium. More recently we have also paid to retrofit the church parking lot with LED lighting as well. 

This summer we installed 21 new “smart” thermostats throughout the school and church building. Two-thirds of these units help manage the temperature in our classrooms, offices, and cafeteria, and the other seven (7) help to manage the temperature for the church building. The cost of the thermostats will be covered completely by the NIPSCO Prescriptive Incentive program. We will even receive a small amount of money to cover the cost of installation (even though a church member donated the installation of the thermostats).

These new “Sensi” thermostats have several features that should help us dramatically lower utility costs:

• Set points throughout the day and evening mean an adjustment in the middle of the day automatically “expires” later in the day when the room is not being used.
• Daily programming makes it easy to customize these set points for the space. For example: classroom units are programmed at 80 degrees over the weekend, but the cafeteria AC will help cool the space on Sunday morning for the Connect Service.
• Cooling and heating limits make sure thermostats are set at “reasonable” levels (72 for cooling and 76 for heating), while still giving the occupant some measure of control while they are using the space.
• Internet connectivity means that leaders can monitor and adjust each of these units remotely and monitor other data like usage and humidity levels.
• Remote sensors mean the thermostats can be placed in a more helpful place while smaller sensors can be placed in various locations throughout the room (e.g, the new sanctuary thermostats on behind the altar even though the sensors are placed on a column in the middle of the sanctuary closer to where people sit). 

We are anxiously waiting to receive our first NIPSCO bill and see how much less electricity we have used this past month as compared to the same month last year.